Anger. Jubilation. Heartbreak. Relief.
As is often the case when it comes to Mississippi State basketball, MSU fans rode an emotional rollercoaster in the Bulldogs 78-77 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday.
This was a game the Bulldogs were supposed to lose. MSU had not defeated Vanderbilt in Memorial Gym since 2004. Vanderbilt had won seven consecutive games. MSU had been embarrassed by Arkansas and in-state rival Ole Miss in their first two SEC road games. When you put it all together, there was no way the Bulldogs would find a way to beat a streaking Vandy squad in their own gym, right?
For the first half, the haters (everyone I spoke to before the game would fall into this category) were correct. MSU could not make a shot, and Vandy could not miss. The pitchforks were out, and many a State fan were calling for MSU head coach Rick Stansbury to be fired at halftime. As he has a habit of doing, Stansbury would pull a rabbit out of his (imaginary) hat in the second half.
After a first half in which the Bulldogs played poorly enough to offend even this year’s Washington Wizards, something happened at halftime that bodes well for this MSU squad as the season progresses: they didn’t quit, and they played smart. No one has ever doubted the talent on this team, but practically everyone has openly wondered if this year’s edition of the Bulldogs had the heart and desire to get back up off the mat when they had been beaten and bloodied. In years past, they have not. This year, they do.
Let me say this before I go any further: It is practically impossible to go into Memorial Gym and beat a quality Vandy team. This team did, and it did so after trailing by double-digits at halftime. For a Mississippi State team and program accused of lacking discipline and heart, this was a monumental victory. Not only did the Bulldogs earn a “quality” win, but they changed the course of their season in one night. Lose in Nashville and suddenly a once promising season would have been perceived as starting to unravel; a talented MSU team would once again go from contenders to pretenders. Instead, the Bulldogs silenced the critics and earned a win that will look extremely good on their resume come March.
For a while in the second half, it seemed as if the Bulldogs were finally hitting on all cylinders. Junior forward Arnett Moultrie established himself inside. Enigmatic center Renardo Sidney was scoring on the block, forcing turnovers on defense and making deft passes not usually made by a 280-pound man. Senior point guard and co-captain Dee Bost, after several sub par games, was controlling the tempo and making shots as MSU fans expect him to do. And sophomore guard Jalen Steele had a brief out-of-body experience and started raining down threes upon a stout Commodore defense.
Vandy, a great team in its own right, would not go away, though. It clawed and scratched its way back into it, forcing overtime after hitting two threes late in the game. This is where previous MSU teams would have folded. This year’s MSU squad never backed down.  They appeared confident and supportive of each other on the sideline (at least they did on my television), and they clamped down and made defensive stops when they needed to be made.
Most importantly, they won. And by winning, they shut up many of their critics. Any questions about this team’s toughness or tenacity should have been answered late in the second half against Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs refused to quit, and they did not roll over and play dead when Vanderbilt mounted a furious comeback. After having played 20 games this year, it is finally acceptable to say that this year’s MSU team is different.
The Bulldogs are not going to win every game left on the schedule, but they will try their best to do so. After the debacle that was last season, what more can you ask for? Maybe, just maybe, this will be the team to finally break through and take MSU and Stansbury to the promised land: the Sweet 16.